Local stadium, local talent, local team (Go, Rams!) – and local staging company
All Access was honored to provide the set and staging for the Super Bowl Halftime show for the twelfth year in a row. And this year the staging company had home field advantage. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA, is just down the street from All Access’ headquarters in Torrance.
“We had the advantage of the stadium being close to our main office and fabrication shop,” said All Access lead technical designer Joey Brennan. “This helped our fabrication and design process by not having to design in as many shipping breaks but presented its own logistical challenge in getting these large units from our shop to rehearsals and then moved again down into the stadium.”
The carts
The set design required huge custom carts. “These carts were enormous,” said All Access president Erik Eastland, “the largest ones were the size of a bus.” The team had to design the bulky carts to fit into the entrance tunnel and then safely down the quarter-mile long ramp into the stadium while navigating concessions, TV trucks, VIP areas, and security.
With all Super Bowl halftime shows, the All Access team has the challenge of building a massive set on a football field quickly without damaging the turf or grass. They have developed a special cart system with pneumatic tires, designed specifically to roll over natural grass and turf fields in a short amount of time without impacting the playing surfaces.
This year was no different – however, the set pieces and carts were larger. Therefore, more caution was taken to protect SoFi Stadium’s brand new turf. All Access worked with the NFL to design the carts to safely distribute the loads on these extra-large carts to keep the stadium’s turf undamaged; part of that plan involved using additional wheels, 300 total to be exact.
Altogether there were close to 30 (24’ by 8’) carts, which were larger than a typical field cart, requiring up to 20 workers to maneuver onto the field.
Welcome to the Neighborhood
This year’s set design was called the Neighborhood. It was a multi-perspective, interactive event with a little bit of everything -- smoke, lights, lifts, theatrics. All Access provided the staging for the seven set pieces included Dr. Dre’s Studio, the Courthouse, Barber Shop, the Club, Tam’s Burgers, Snoop’s House, and the MLK Memorial, which all have significance to Dr. Dre and the performers.
“You could call this year’s design more architectural than any other halftime show,” said Eastland. All Access fabricated (and scenic painted) the building structures of each set piece and integrated video tiles into the walls and windows; the staging company also built the MLK Memorial element on a circular lightbox deck.
Studio Console Lift
Dr. Dre’s scene was the most involved element of the Neighborhood from All Access’ perspective – and featured the largest lift the team has built for any halftime show. The 24’ by 16’ lift elevated the whole Studio set to roof level, traveling 8’. The carts for the Studio set were more than 7500 lbs. each.
The Studio Console lift was essentially two carts that joined to form one elevator in a timing sequence. “The two elevators were synced and timed to operate together but operate independently because everything first had to fit on a truck and then through the stadium entrance tunnel onto the field,” explained Brennan.
The Courthouse
An 8’ star lift was used in the Courthouse scene for the Eminem reveal. And that explosion? The All Access team created an effect using Kabuki solenoids and hand-made custom foam break-away panels that appear to blow up onto the field.
Aerial view
We worked with Atomic to create that aerial view of Compton that surrounds the Neighborhood set pieces and streets the performers take around the stadium. Atomic created a field cloth cover embedded with thousands of LEDs. All Access provided the carts that held and deployed the cover and lighting.
As always, there were thousands of feet of LED. Double runs of LED were integrated as accent lighting on all the building elements–more than 2,000 feet.
That’s a wrap
Like every year, the Super Bowl LVI Halftime show was all hands-on-deck for All Access. “This year was a hugely collaborative design,” said Brennan. “And as always, it was a group effort by every department.”
Many thanks to:
Bruce Rodgers and Tribe, Inc.
Dave Meyers and DPS
Desiree Perez and Roc Nation
Es Devlin and her team
The entire All Access team
Live Design's coverage of this year's Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show is sponsored by All Access.